What About Paris? ™

Thanks--and thanks for toning it down this time. I think I need a bowler, too.

Unlike the more gentlemanly A.S. I do mean offence to Mr Naheem. Why the F*****g Hell is he wearing a beret? Self-mockery training? An ironic comment on expectations? He looks like a twat: he should remove it and throw it into the twirling eddies of the Seine.

See? Even talking about Paris causes pretentious language. Gall is a cancer on the Western Europe; these lead-footed atavistic troglodytes have saddled us with direct and indirect debt and cultural irrelevance.

You and I, JDH, have butted heads over the French before so I appreciate you will never see sense: my opinion, that is. But no matter, all men are entitled to a mad secret dark-spot where they can retreat and gibber: yours is not Paris but in your head, and access is through the gates of this pointless city.

The French are lazy (though they have the same GDP as we Brits on far less hours, it's true - not a point you want Gen-Y to hear I suspect). They are pompous insecure bitter about Anglo-Saxon dominance, faux-intellectual (like that dumb straight C's kid in your class who read Sartre and didn't quite get it but thought he did) and generally needing a generously applied baseball bat to the left temple.

French food is good, French wine is good (but way overpriced see above) Val D'Isere is great, but, as one Cheese eating Surrender Monkey said to me, 'really a little part of England'. French women f**k like $100 whores (they are grateful for Limey attention as otherwise they only have French men).

You can keep your Paris sir, and your garlic and your hairy armpitted women. I'll take fair Albion any day and every day.

As for Dick Nahem I'll have my tailor send him a proper hat: a bowler.

AS: Moderating one's sloth is extremely advanced stuff. Wait until you are 45 at least.

And read Aristotle, and the Chinese, please, and quickly, before you go straight-up bag lady on us.

The ancient Greeks philosophers taught about the Golden Mean. One of the three sayings carved into the Temple at Delphi was "nothing in excess". That applies to work and to sloth equally. Perhaps Ecclesiastes said it better: "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven."

I've spent lots of time in Paris--working and not--and France is the caretaker, in my book, of the best part of Western culture. Was there last year and will be again in the Fall--same hotel, same part of the city, in a neighborhood I adopted years ago.

But the French have been on vacation since 1946. Everyone sane and who loves them wants them to get back to work. Most Americans who represent business and industry would go nuts if they lived there full time. Trust me.

You sound pretty young--you clearly need to spend more time in Paris. You need $ to enjoy Paris. That means hard work. Not everyone there is a slug. There are about 20 full time workaholics on tiny but expensive Île Saint-Louis alone. They have all earned the right to live there by hard work--not by showing up in the City and just hanging out.

In regards to Mr. Nahem, I meant no offense to him. I respect his move to Paris. It shows that he has courage to live his dream, regardless of the cost.

But why was his dream to live in Paris, of all places? My guess: because the French are famous for making an effort to enjoy life. "Joie de vivre" they call it. Long lunches, month-long vacations, fine wine, art, fashion, culture, etc. Or as you would call it, "work/wank" balance. With much higher quality "wanking" than you can find in most of America.

France is not exactly a country that idolizes Ayn Rand. The French realize that a so-called "hot worm" who spends 80% of his life in the office, and has little contact with friends & family, is leading a very unhealthy lifestyle. Maybe this promise of more "wanking" is precisely the bait that attracts so many Anglo-Saxons to France?

And another thing: your stories about Mr. Nahem are essentially a dangling of that same bait in front of your readers, "slackoisie" and "hot worms" alike. Why would your readers be jealous that this guy lives in Paris? Implicit answer: because nobody moves to France to spend 80% of his life in the office. I bet Mr. Nahem doesn't spend 80% of his life in the office. People move to France to enjoy life. Otherwise, what's the point? You can lock yourself in the office in NYC. There's no need to move halfway around the world to that. Correct me if I am wrong.

Richard is much better than that. He has sand, a work ethic, aspirations--and character. And you?

He must be one of those "work-life" wankers you rant about in your other posts.

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